Chapter5
795 Words
Chapter 5
The Lockdown
The room remained frozen.
Marco.
The name sat on the page like a loaded gun.
Nobody spoke.
Nobody moved.
Vito stared at the records, reading the same lines over and over.
The numbers never changed.
The signatures never changed.
The approvals remained exactly where they were.
And every path led back to Marco.
Antonio finally broke the silence.
“Say something.”
Vito slowly closed the file.
His expression revealed nothing.
Which was far more dangerous than anger.
“Where is he?”
Antonio frowned.
“Marco?”
“Where is he?”
“Last report said he was overseeing the eastern checkpoints.”
Vito nodded once.
“Bring him in.”
The order was calm.
Deadly calm.
Antonio immediately understood.
This wasn’t a request.
It was an interrogation.
Half an hour later, Marco entered the war room.
His jacket was soaked from the rain.
Dark circles shadowed his eyes.
Like everyone else, he hadn’t slept since Luna disappeared.
The moment he stepped inside, he sensed something was wrong.
His gaze moved across the room.
The soldiers.
Antonio.
The file lying on the table.
Then Vito.
Marco’s stomach tightened.
“What happened?”
Vito didn’t answer.
He slid the folder across the table.
“Read.”
Marco opened it.
His eyes scanned the pages.
Once.
Twice.
Then a third time.
The color drained from his face.
“What the hell is this?”
“The question is whether you can answer that.”
Marco looked up sharply.
“You think I authorized these transfers?”
“The records say you did.”
“The records are bullshit.”
His response came instantly.
Without hesitation.
Without fear.
Vito watched him carefully.
Studying every movement.
Every blink.
Every breath.
Looking for guilt.
Finding none.
Marco threw the file back onto the table.
“Someone forged my authorization.”
Antonio folded his arms.
“That’s convenient.”
Marco rounded on him immediately.
“You think I sold out the family?”
“I think somebody did.”
The room grew tense.
Hands drifted closer to holstered weapons.
Not because anyone expected violence.
But because suspicion had entered the room.
And suspicion poisoned everything.
Miles away from Valoria, Luna sat silently in the passenger seat of Gabriel’s vehicle.
The rain had finally stopped.
The roads stretched endlessly ahead.
Sofia slept in the backseat, exhausted.
Luna couldn’t.
Her fingers tightened around her mother’s silver locket.
Questions swirled through her mind.
Who was Gabriel?
How had he known her mother?
Why had her mother prepared for this?
Most importantly—
What exactly had she discovered?
Gabriel drove without speaking.
His eyes remained fixed on the road.
Finally, Luna broke the silence.
“Start talking.”
Gabriel glanced at her.
“About what?”
“My mother.”
His jaw tightened.
“No.”
Luna’s patience snapped.
“No?”
“You aren’t ready.”
“I’ve spent days being hunted. Men are trying to kill me. Someone betrayed Vito. And you’re telling me I’m not ready?”
Gabriel remained silent.
That silence told her everything.
Whatever secrets her mother left behind were bigger than she imagined.
Much bigger.
Back in Valoria, Vito stood alone in his office.
The city spread beneath him through the floor-to-ceiling windows.
For the first time in years, he felt blind.
Every lead collapsed.
Every answer created more questions.
Then his phone vibrated.
One of his intelligence officers.
“Talk.”
The man’s voice sounded nervous.
“Boss… we found something connected to the abandoned estate.”
Vito straightened.
“What?”
“A destroyed hard drive.”
His pulse quickened.
“Can it be recovered?”
“Partially.”
“What did you find?”
The officer hesitated.
Then spoke.
“There was a surveillance folder.”
Vito’s grip tightened around the phone.
“Surveillance of who?”
A pause.
A long pause.
Then—
“You.”
The room went silent.
Every muscle in Vito’s body locked.
“What?”
“They’ve been tracking you for months.”
The officer swallowed.
“Your movements. Meetings. Security routes.”
Cold fury settled inside Vito.
Because surveillance on him meant planning.
Preparation.
Patience.
This wasn’t a k********g.
It wasn’t revenge.
It wasn’t random.
Someone had been building toward this for a very long time.
Then the officer added one final sentence.
The sentence that changed everything.
“There was another folder too.”
Vito’s voice became deadly.
“Whose?”
The answer came quietly.
“Luna’s mother.”
Vito froze.
For a moment, he forgot how to breathe.
Because Luna’s mother had supposedly died years ago.
Yet somehow, whoever was behind all this had been watching her too.
And if they were watching her…
Then maybe her death wasn’t an accident after all.
- Writer
